23 people from 13 countries attended, all with different research questions to tackle with EwE. We had a week of great discussions and learning. Thanks for joining!

We aimed at discussing their main features, applications, advances, complementarities and limitations. The emphasis of the workshop was on methods such as chemical tags (stable isotopes, fatty acids, trace elements), genetics (DNA metabarcoding), visual observations (stomach content) and the analysis of different parts or tissues of organisms (otoliths, stomach contents, muscles, bones, eye lens…), as well as on modelling techniques.

Our iMARES team prepared a nice video to showcase the week.

A peer review publication in on the making!

Specifically, the report highlights the need to adopt an ecosystem-based fisheries management model rather than one focused on individual species, considering the complex interactions between species and their environment. According to the authors, this approach will improve the health and resilience of marine ecosystems and complement traditional strategies, which are not always sufficient.

Furthermore, the report proposes a holistic vision of the oceans, considering the entirety of marine ecosystems, including habitats, biodiversity, the ecological processes that sustain them, and the range of economic activities that take place, from resource production to distribution and consumption.

“This integrated perspective is essential for reversing the degradation of marine ecosystems and ensuring their recovery, thus contributing to the preservation of the services they provide to society,” says Marta Coll (ICM-CSIC), the study’s author.

Research and equitable distribution of benefits

The report also stresses the importance of scientific research as a fundamental basis for the development of tools and innovative strategies that enable more effective and sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, it emphasizes the need to ensure fairer and more transparent value chains, ensuring that the benefits reach local communities and sector workers in a just manner.

“A fairer distribution of the benefits generated by fishing and aquaculture is necessary. We cannot talk about sustainability solely in environmental terms, but also need to include social and economic justice. The benefits of these sectors must be equitable and transparent for local communities and workers,” states Miquel Ortega (ICM-CSIC), another of the report’s authors.

Finally, the document calls on governments, businesses, and civil society to collaborate on the implementation of urgent measures for production, distribution, and consumption that will ensure the health of the oceans and a sustainable future for the next generations. These actions are vital for contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to protecting life below water and combating climate change.

The new report is part of the “Science for Public Policy” collection, which aims to act as a bridge between research centres and policymakers:

“This programme is intended to become a mechanism for public officials at all levels of government to make more effective decisions based on scientific knowledge,” says the President of CSIC, Eloísa del Pino.

The report is also issued in Alimentta think tank

22 people attended from different countries and with different research questions to tackle with EwE. We had a week of great discussions and learning, and we are thrilled with the interest shown by all participants! 

This course has been organized under the Spanish Project ProOceans, and the new R package Glossa has been presented and tested!

During the week of the 11^th to the 15^th of December 2023, the ICM hosted, once again, an ecosystem modelling course to teach participants from different institutions around the world how to use modelling techniques to study the effects of human activities and climate change on marine ecosystems.

In total, 20 participants from 13 countries (Romania, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Holland, Greece, Italy and France) got together to learn about the ecosystem modelling approach Ecopath with Ecosim  (EwE,). This course, organized under 7 European and National projects (Ges4Seas, ActNow, MarinePlan, FutureMares, EcoScope, Oceans+, and ProOceans), aimed to help participants with their modelling-related tasks, work packages and deliverables.

Ecosystem modelling courses were frequently taught at ICM before 2019, and starting with this course, the intention is to organize them again on annual basis. These courses are a great opportunity for the scientific community to get introduced to one of the most applied ecological modelling tools in the world, while meeting participants from all over the world and learn about the recent developments of the approach.

A three-day introductory course was followed by a two-day advanced course. The introductory course discussed basic concepts and procedures modelling aquatic ecosystems using the EwE approach. Participants were provided with the principles behind EwE, and how to design, parameterize and analyze an ecological model. Introductory concepts of the temporal module Ecosim and the spatial-temporal module Ecospace were presented.

The advanced course discussed in-depth principles of Ecospace. Special focus was paid to how to use EwE to study the impacts of cumulative stressors, including the impact of climate change, and the effects of alternative management options of marine resources to move towards adaptation and mitigation of human activities under global change.

The course was taught by a team of core scientists behind EwE: Villy Christensen (University of British Columbia, Canada), Jeroen Steenbeek (Ecopath International Initiative, Spain) and Marta Coll (Institute of Marine Science, Spain). Three teaching assistants completed the team: Elena Lloret and Dorota Szalaj, from ICM, and Riikka Puntilla-Dodd, from Åbo Akademi University (Finland).